AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - The 500-pound pink elephant was in the 76ers' locker room Monday, before they took the floor for the next-to-last game of the season against Detroit. When asked to comment about the news that coach Doug Collins does not wish to return and will be coaching his last game in Indiana on Wednesday, most pleaded ignorance. They had yet to be told by Collins or anyone in the organization what has been decided. What seems to be settled, according to multiple sources, is that Collins and the team either have completed or are working on some kind of financial settlement, and that it will be announced as early as Thursday that Collins will not return for the final season of his contract.

According to a source who has spoken recently with Eddie Jordan and Doug Collins, both would be interested in becoming the next coach of the 76ers, a job made available yesterday when Tony DiLeo removed his name from consideration. Jordan is interviewing for the Sacramento Kings' vacancy today and tomorrow in Las Vegas, but the source, who confirmed Jordan's close relationship with Sixers general manager Ed Stefanski, said Jordan would be drawn to the Sixers' job because of the team's ability to contend.

THIS IS HOW the past week appears to have played out between 76ers coach Doug Collins and management, according to multiple league sources. The sources say that Collins, now in his third season as head coach and with 1 more year remaining on his contract, told management he would prefer not to return as coach next season. Owner Josh Harris informed Collins that he very much wants Collins back at the helm next season, but was told that Collins was not prepared to return in that capacity.

New 76ers coach Doug Collins got what he wanted. Collins said he likes when NBA prospects produce pre-draft workouts that make a team reconsider its draft plans. Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson did just that Saturday at the Sixers' pre-draft workout at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. "You like someone and you want someone [else] to come in and make you think. That's what you love to do as a coach," said Collins, whose squad holds the No. 2 overall pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

If the NBA championship were determined by what teams do during the offseason, the 76ers, with their impressive moves, would have the look of a contender. The reality, though, is that the pieces must fit together; growing pains must occur. For the Sixers, who return just one-third of the players from a team that came within just one victory of reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 11 seasons, that process begins on Tuesday, when the revamped Sixers open training camp at St. Joseph's University in preparation for the 2012-13 season.

Although the 76ers' path to relevance remains uphill, there is now a man to follow, a star player to be hopeful of, and a season to anticipate instead of dread. A week ago, none of that existed. A week ago, there were more than a half-dozen coaching candidates, a seemingly never-ending tunnel of mediocrity, and a general manager whose status was like a jump ball: up in the air. Now there is Doug Collins as coach; the No. 2 pick in the 2010 NBA draft - a.k.a. Evan Turner - as potential star player, and Ed Stefanski as the decision-maker with a newfound sense of security.

Twenty years ago, in the first season after divesting themselves of Charles Barkley, the 76ers scuffled through a long year with a starless roster and a coach who didn't see much point in getting too emotionally involved with the outcomes of the games. Doug Moe won more than 600 NBA games in his career, and he didn't do it with mirrors, but he also didn't do it with four centers named Andrew Lang, Manute Bol, Charles Shackleford, and Eddie Lee Wilkins taking up room on his roster.

NEWARK, N.J. - Goodbye, New Jersey; hello, playoffs. While the Nets marked their final game in North Jersey after 35 years (they will move across the river to Brooklyn next season), the 76ers held a mild celebration of their own Monday night after beating New Jersey, 105-87. The win clinched a playoff berth for the Sixers, who improved to 34-30 with their third consecutive win on the road. They are tied with New York for the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Knicks own the tiebreaker.

Coach Doug Collins did not attend the 76ers' practice Sunday because of a sinus infection. The Sixers listed Collins as day-to-day. The 61-year-old coach left in the third quarter of Saturday's 97-80 victory over the New York Knicks to be treated for the infection. Collins was examined by team internist Daniel Lazowick after the game. He was replaced in the game by associate head coach Michael Curry, who ran Sunday's practice. The Sixers coach has left the bench before because of health issues.

Caldwell Jones, a rail-thin frontcourt player who helped the 76ers reach the NBA Finals three times, died Sunday of a heart attack in Decatur, Ga. Mr. Jones, 64, was one of four brothers to reach the NBA after playing at Albany State College. He began his career with the San Diego Conquistadors of the ABA in 1973 before joining the 76ers in 1976. Mr. Jones, who retired from the NBA in 1990, played six seasons with the Sixers before he was traded to the Houston Rockets. He also played for Chicago, Portland and San Antonio in a 14-year NBA career.

CAUGHT SOME of the Sixers game the other night. Not too much of course, because extended views can make winter seem longer, deepen depression, even leave your eyes overly sensitive to light. But I watched the Thunder's 125-92 victory, the Sixers' 15th loss in a row, as long as I could, just to familiarize myself with players I might someday win a prize or free drink for identifying. Maybe as soon as this summer. That's when we're supposed to uncover our eyes again, I guess.

LAST YEAR at about this time, Doug Collins had had it up to his kind eyes with conjecture about the health of his rehabbing big man. Andrew Bynum would tell us that he might play next week, or next month, and then he would come to practice, and then he wouldn't. Doug was asked daily, weekly, monthly, and Doug would answer daily, weekly, monthly, until finally one day Doug told reporters: "You should talk to him. I don't want to be the messenger because they shoot messengers. " Brett Brown seems to be at that point when discussing Nerlens Noel.

The boos were predictable, and they were as loud and long as you'd expect, and they began with 3 minutes, 54 seconds left in the first quarter - the instant Andrew Bynum lifted all 7 feet and 285 pounds of himself off his chair along the Cleveland Cavaliers' sideline and made for the scorer's table. The boos were cathartic, because Andrew Bynum was supposed to have been some kind of savior last season for the Sixers. Andrew Bynum, acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in a thunderclap trade involving four teams.

AT 6-8 AND now a chiseled 235 pounds, Thaddeus Young can bang down low and challenge around the basket with opposing centers. Other times he is tussling with players closer to his size at his now familiar power-forward spot. He is actually the size of yet another position, a small forward. Throughout his 7-year career he has been asked to step out and shoot jump shots, beat slower defenders off the dribble, score in the paint. He always has been at his best when he is running the floor and getting to the rim, difficult to stop as a lefthander with exceptional athletic ability.

Jeffrey Millman, 67, of Pennsauken, longtime equipment manager for the Philadelphia 76ers who began with the team as a ball boy when he was 10, died of lung cancer Tuesday, Nov. 5, at a friend's home in Mantua. Ten years before he became the equipment manager in 1972, the 15-year-old Mr. Millman was with the old Philadelphia Warriors when Wilt Chamberlain had his 100-point game in Hershey on March 2, 1962, nephew Jerrold Colton said in a phone interview. "He was very tight with Wilt," Colton said.

IMAGINE YOU are on a park bench and this guy sits next to you and begins to talk. He tells you he was there that night in Hershey when Wilt scored 100, tells you he even had the 100-point ball in his possession before he wrapped it in a bunch of towels and stuffed it in The Dipper's gym bag. You nod and smile a patronizing smile. And then he starts to tell you about that time on the White House lawn, when he was again in charge of the ball, this one signed by every member of the 1983 NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers, how he was just doing his job when President Reagan came out, took the ball from him, clowned around and shook his hand.

Jeff Millman touched many people's lives during a half-century of service to the 76ers. Many of the greatest names in franchise history returned to honor him Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center against the Miami Heat. Among the former Sixers on hand were Julius Erving, Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson, Moses Malone, Billy Cunningham, Bobby Jones, Darryl Dawkins, and Doug Collins. In a pregame ceremony, the Sixers dedicated their locker room to Millman, a longtime equipment manager who had several jobs with the team over the years.

Brett Brown's message for Evan Turner: Don't read media reports. "And I hope he's not caring about what goes on on Twitter," the new 76ers coach said. Brown wants the Sixers' second overall draft pick in 2010 to get into a gym and rediscover a passion for the game. He said the key would be to go back to his time as a youth when he really enjoyed playing basketball. "Now that sounds a lot easier than it is to achieve," Brown said. "But it starts with the knowledge that you are putting in the time.

The game is called "Beat Sam Brown," and it is a staple of practice sessions for the San Antonio Spurs. It is a shooting game, but not an easy one even for an NBA player to win. A contestant must shoot from the five standard stations behind the three-point line: the two corners, the two wing positions and the top of the free-throw circle. He gets to shoot at each of the stations until he makes one, and then can keep shooting at that station until he misses. Then he moves on to the next and the next.